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A wealthy and hot-tempered rebel, encouraged always by an indomitable mother, he spent half his life fighting to live up to a famous father and grandfather. A self-described moderate on the campaign trail, he courts ultra-right-wing preachers behind the scenes and promises to appoint stridently conservative judges. A multimillionaire who supports more tax cuts for more millionaires, he surrounds himself with supply-siders and calls for policies that would drive us deeper into debt. The chief cheerleader for the war in Iraq, he said we'd be "welcomed as liberators" and angrily challenges anyone who questions his distorted and out-of-touch view of reality. A self-styled reformer, his kitchen cabinet is stocked with Washington lobbyists. Deeply out of touch on economic issues, he repeats nostrums like "The fundamentals are strong" even as the fundamentals are deteriorating. He carefully courts members of the press, who suck up to him even though he supports authoritarian policies like wiretapping Americans without a court order. He is supported by oil company lobbyists, and he supports drilling in some of our most sensitive ecosystems. Although he gladly accepts government health care for himself, he opposes government-guaranteed health care for you -- abandoning you to take on colossal insurance corporations on your own. Charming and disarming at first blush, his wit masks a petulant temper and a self-righteous streak that even members of his own party worry about.

Every one of those sentences describes George W. Bush. And every one of them describes John McCain.

The biggest myth of Campaign 2008 is that John McCain is fundamentally different from George W. Bush. This book sets out to explode that myth.

In ways both big and small, frightening and funny, on matters of both style and substance, and on issues of policy and politics, John McCain represents a continuation of the Bush years. His defenders -- and they are legion in the national press corps he accurately calls his "base" -- will howl, but a clear-eyed reading of the record makes a compelling case that on nearly all of the things that matter most, John McCain would be more of the same.

To be sure (you knew there had to be the obligatory "to be sure" paragraph), McCain distinguished himself in wartime in ways that Bush did not. While Bush was failing even to show up for the Alabama National Guard, McCain was seeking out the most dangerous assignments in the navy. John McCain's suffering at the hands of torturers in North Vietnam, his heroism and devotion to country -- they are all real. Every schoolchild should study McCain's POW experience to appreciate a man of such extraordinary valor. You will be disappointed if you are looking for a book that will answer the Swift Boat Veterans' lies about John Kerry with lies about John McCain.

Nor will I stoop to the politics of personal destruction as was practiced against my former boss Bill Clinton. Personal failings rarely predict presidential failings. FDR was an unfaithful husband; George W. Bush is a model of marital fidelity. Who would you rather have leading our country? Instead, this is a study of politics, policy, and personality -- and the stunning similarities between George W. Bush and John McCain in each area.

In writing this book I have put a premium on accuracy. I have tried to cite the source for every vote and every quote. I am, of course, a man of strong opinions. But I believe it is essential for me to back those opinions up with facts. As Casey Stengel said, "You can look it up."

This book examines how George W. Bush and John McCain came to initially loathe each other -- perhaps because they were more alike than either could bear to admit -- and then how, in one painfully awkward hug, they lashed their fates together. It examines the issues of war and peace, of the economy and health care, of the environment and special interests -- and returns damning proof that, despite what McCain and his apologists would have you believe, a vote for John McCain is a vote for a third term for George W. Bush.